“Russia also plans to develop its tank support fighting vehicle dubbed the Terminator-3 on the basis of the country’s latest Armata tanks,”

There is no direct analogue to a “tank support fighting vehicle” in the U.S. Army. Perhaps the nearest equivalent is the M3 Cavalry Fighting Vehicle (CFV) variant of the long-serving Bradley — but it’s a poor comparison at best

A potentially closer comparison might be the Israeli Namer — which is based on a Merkava 4 tank chassis — but the Russian machines are not designed to carry troops. Perhaps the best historical equivalent in terms of roles and missions might be the World War II-era German Brummbär or Sturmtiger assault guns

The Red Army — and later the Russian Ground Forces — developed the series based on the lessons it learnt from Afghanistan and Chechnya

The idea was to build a vehicle with the protection of a main battle tank, but which had the ability to engage enemy armor, bunkers and infantry in hiding in elevated positions. Indeed, every version of the Terminator built to date has the armor protection equivalent to — or better — than a main battle tank

Generally speaking, the Russians employ BMTP vehicles alongside with their main battle tanks in the same unit in combat. On the open battlefield, there would normally be a pair of tanks accompanied by a BMTP

However, in particularly mountainous or constrained environments such as a city, the ratio would be reversed. Two BMTPs would accompany a tank such as the T-72 or T-90